Chapter 5

As soon as he saw the swordsman take out one of his swords and the long nose guy point his slingshot towards them (he tried to ignore the fact that the man was hiding behind the straw-hat boy), Sanji pulled out his knives from his sleeves and crouched into a fighting stance. This time however Vivi did not follow his example. She jumped between the two sides, raising her hands in the air.

"Wait! We're not looking to start a fight." She hurriedly explained.

"Tell him that!" The swordsman grunted, glaring at Sanji's weapons.

"Mr.9, please." Vivi asked him gently.

Sanji sighed while he put his knives back in the hidden holsters, another trick his sister had shared with him. He hated being in this kind of position. He did not ask for help when he could avoid it. But this time they did not seem to have a choice. Overtaking the boat would mean they would have to defeat these pirates. Most of them might not look very smart or strong but on the Grandline you learned not to underestimate your opponent. A long time ago, many armies had learned this lesson the hard way when they were annihilated by his three eight-year-old brothers. He nodded to Vivi silently signaling that he would follow her lead. He knew that when it came to persuading a bunch of young pirate teens, a young pretty princess was the best person for the job.

"We are here to ask for your help…"

"How do we know this is not a trick? You were trying to kill poor Laboon just a few minutes ago!"

Nami crossed her arms. Sanji calmly replied.

"The time given to us to finish this mission has expired, so even if we killed the whale now, we still would be punished for failing the job by our boss…"

The princess quickly cut him off by placing a hand on his mouth.

"What he means is that we don't want to hurt your friend. We just want to go back to our island but our boat got destroyed."

Nami raised an eyebrow at their words. She smirked, her expression pure evil.

"That's pretty confident of you, do you really believe we would give you a ride for free?"

Her crewmates appeared to be used to her sudden change of attitude. Sanji heard the long nose mumble a few words to the other boys.

"Here she goes again. Money is always on our navigator's mind."

The others nodded in agreement. Sanji watched her eyes sparkle, he could almost see the outline of the berry sign in her pretty brown eyes. But all of her excitement disappeared quite rapidly as soon as Vivi spoke next.

"We don't have any money on us." Her tone turned apologetic when she witnessed the effect of her words on the other girl's mood.

Vivi's idea of asking nicely was not working on the red head. And it seemed that they needed her full approval if they wanted to catch a ride on this boat. The other crewmates chose to stay out of the negotiations. Sanji watched the redhead carefully. She watched her place her hands on her hips in a cute way to look intimidating. So she was the navigator of this crew. He of course was not surprised, the others did not seem to have enough brain cells to even be able to read a map. Since all the attention was on Vivi who was desperately trying to make them change their mind, Sanji took the liberty to check out the angry Navigator. Her hair was cut to her shoulders probably a practical choice. He watched her forehead lightly wrinkle when she frowned. He noted that her lips were set in a pout. He saw her raise her hand, swiping away a few strands of her hair that had fallen in front of her eyes. She tucked them behind her ear.

However that's when he realized that something very important was missing from her thin wrist. He walked towards her and stopped in front her. His eyes were glued to her wrist. He did not pay attention to her confused look or the tensed positions the other boys had adopted. They probably thought he might harm her. He looked up meeting her eyes.

"You're the navigator?" She nodded in confirmation. Sanji raised an eyebrow at her while pointing at her left wrist.

"So, tell me miss Navigator, where is your crew's log pose?" She looked confused at his words. So he repeated them.

"You know a log pose. Compasses don't work on the grand line, you need a logpose if you want to sail on the Grandline."

He explained to her. These guys had entered the grand line without knowing this crucial information? Did they have a death wish. She looked at him as if he was insane while hurriedly taking out the compass from one of her skirt pocket.

"What are you talking about? Why would compasses not wo…" But as soon as her eyes landed on the compass spinning needle she screamed. Everyone jumped in surprise at the sound.

"What's the matter Nami!?" The long nose teen asked.

"The compass… its broken…the needle won't stop spinning…" She stammered, her eyes were wide in shock, watching the compasses' needle, which she had placed on the kitchen's table, spin uncontrollably.

"You came here without having any idea of what you were getting into?"

They all turned to see that Crocus had joined them in the kitchen he was standing in front of the door way, his armed crossed. He walked towards the red head, and started explaining to her the working of a log pose and how the magnetic field of the islands worked, her and the long nose guy seemed to be the only oned paying attention to his explanation. Vivi had sat back down half listening to information she had known all her life. The green oaf was taking a nap sitting against the kitchen wall. The straw hat boy was trying discreetly to make his way towards the fridge.

Sanji looked down at his watch, it was lunch time. He thought he might as well make something for lunch, they would not find time to eat while sailing, he knew how hectic this part of the sea could be. Furthermore he did not trust anyone in this room to make his lunch. The few competent straw-hat members were busy listening to Crocus. He had learned very quickly during his year on Whiskey Peak to keep the princess away from a stove or an oven.

He walked up to the fridge and inspected its content. It was full however the amount of different types of food was not very balanced. The fridge was mostly filled with proteins. They did not have enough of some important nutriments. He concluded that the ship did not have a cook or at least a competent one. He remembered the royal head chef telling him in his foreign accent that a crew sailing without a cook had a death wish. And now he understood why. From the content of this fridge, these pirates did not eat a healthy balanced meal that would help them overcome the tough conditions of sailing on the Grandline. But that was not his problem.

He slapped the straw-hat hand when the boy tried munching on some raw meat he had taken out of the fridge.

"This is good quality meat don't waste it by eating it raw." He scolded him while putting the meat back in its rightful place. The boy crossed his arms pouting.

"But I'm starving."

Sanji observed a few seconds more the food available. He turned towards the boy and started reciting a menu he had just come up with by looking at the ingredients they had. A small little exercise the royal sous chef would make him do every evening before the cooks started to work on dinner. As a kid he had seen it as a small game where if done correctly he could finally be praised by the other cooks around him. Something as a kid, he desperately needed. However later on he just saw this as just another skill he needed to train.

From the impatient attitude of this boy, he knew that he should focus more on quickly made dishes.

"If you let Mrs. Wednesday and I share with you I could help with the cooking. I could make an entrée with those cucumbers, then maybe I could follow that with some simple pepper and salt steak. I also saw that you have a lot of rice in that cupboard. I could use that and some of the zucchinis to make a simple risotto. And for desert maybe some fruit salad."

When he turned around to ask for Luffy's opinion on the menu, he was met with a peculiar sight. The boy was practically drooling. His eyes had been replaced by pieces of meat.

"Steak?" The boy repeated in awe.

Sanji decided to take the man's shining eyes and drooling as a yes. A half hour later, Crocus was done explaining everything and answering all of Nami's questions while Sanji was finishing serving the dishes. The princess had helped him set the table. Sanji was struggling to put the dishes on the table while keeping the straw hat boy away from them with his foot. The boy was acting like a raving wild animal and it was taken all of Sanji's strength to hold him back. His patience snapped when the boy almost bit his foot in his attempt to eat the plate of steak. Sanji in seconds had smashed his foot in the boy's face sending him crashing in the wall facing them.

Nami who until now was completely focused on Crocus words turned around startled by the loud commotion behind her. Her eyes widened at the sight of the beautiful plates of food on the kitchen table.

"Mr.9 made lunch." The blue haired girl happily informed her.

After the shock had passed, Nami was not happy that the blond man used their ingredients without asking and she made sure to tell him.

"But Mrs. Navigator I did ask your crewmates permission they said yes."

He made sure not to precise which crewmate he had asked. Surprisingly Nami's angry reply was cut off by the long nose man.

"This is so good Nami! Don't get angry, he made our cheap food taste like something you order at a fancy restaurant."

"Yeah Nami, he made really good meat for us." Luffy added his cheeks full of food.

He appeared to have just brushed off the kick like it was nothing and was now gobbling down five steaks.

"Yeah you witch stop yelling you're ruining the taste of the food and alcohol."

Zoro had woken up from his nap and at that moment was eating the rice next to Usopp at the table. Nami's brow twitched in irritation, she looked exasperated by her crewmates' attitude.

But even she had to admit that the food the blond man had made looked appetizing. She begrudgingly sat down on the only chair left empty wich was located in front of zoro and on the right of the blond man. Crocus had chosen to sit at the end of the table. They're were all digging in to their food. She grabbed the fork in her right hand.

"Since you guys didn't drop dead then at least I know its not poisoned."

Sanji decided not to tell her that some poisons were used because of their slow acting effects, in other words if he wanted them dead they could very well drop dead an hour or two after eating his food. But he knew that the pirate girl would not have appreciated this little anecdote, especially when she was about to take a bite of the risotto.

He pretended to be focused on his food while glancing discreetly in her direction waiting to see her reaction to his cooking. If someone asked, he would not be able to say why he was so interested in knowing her opinion about his food. He watched her take her first bite. And his heart almost stopped at the sight of her smile. Her cheeks turned slightly pink and her eyes closed to savor the taste. This was the first real smile he saw from her and he was proud that his cooking was the cause of it. He couldn't stop the corners of his mouth from lifting up just a little bit.

The atmosphere of the dinner was foreign to him. He had never eaten in such an environment. It felt strange but also kind of satisfying to see people laugh and talk while eating food he made. His year living Whiskey Peak were not filled with laughter. And his life back in Germa had been filled with laughter but not of his own. He silently watched as the princess laughed at something the long nose had said to the swordsman. He noticed the red head that now he knew was called Nami scold the boy for stealing everyone's food. And he wasn't the only silent observer around the table. Crocus was smiling while looking in the straw hat boy's direction.

When everyone had almost finished eating, some of them were still picking at their fruit salads(except Luffy who had decided to accompany dessert with another steak) and sipping on some black tea, Sanji chose that moment to bring back the conversation they abandoned earlier. He turned towards the navigator. He cleared his throat to get her and everyone else's attention.

"Mrs. Nami, I would like to make an offer to you and your crew." He took her silence as a sign for him to continue. "As you already know, Mrs. Wednesday and I need a ride back to Whiskey Peak, I would like to offer in exchange our logpose. I noticed earlier that you didn't have one. This would be advantageous for you and for us. We can help you by giving a log pose and help you since we are used to traveling on this part of the sea." He stated calmly.

He could see Nami was seriously thinking about it. But before she could answer, Luffy was the one to reply.

"Sure."

"Sure?"

"Yeah, we can take you to Whiskey Peak. Its not a problem."

Luffy calmly told him while chewing on his piece of meat. Nami tried to protest.

"But Luffy we don't know anything about them, we can't just…"

Luffy shook his head.

"Its fine Nami, don't worry about small details like those."

Nami finally gave up. She was slowly learning that sometimes it was impossible to change her captain's mind on some things.

"Well you are the captain…" Nami's words made Mrs. Wednesday and him spit out their tea in shock.

"HE'S THE CAPTAIN?!"